


There's no place I'd rather be

by New_day



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Domestic, M/M, Murder Husbands, POV Will Graham, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Retrospective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 15:09:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16725765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/New_day/pseuds/New_day
Summary: This is basically domestic bliss with cannibalism. Will and Hannibal are together after the fall, enjoying each other's and their dogs' company, as well as killing and eating long pig.





	There's no place I'd rather be

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short fic inspired by an image I had in mind, of Will waking up one morning a few years after the fall, with Hannibal already having gotten up and making breakfast. The idea for their victim came from a sad and disturbing story I read about a transgender teen who was murdered in Jamaica.

_We're a thousand miles from comfort, we have traveled land and sea  
But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be._

(Clean Bandit- Rather be)

***

Will wakes up late. It has been a long night. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that he is alone. But Will can still smell him, can sense Hannibal's smell lingering on the sheets and on his own body. 

Will yawns and stretches. He pulls back the blankets and gets up slowly. Then he glances down, looking at himself. Bruises, scratches, minor wounds. Some of these marks are remnants of their kill. But not all of them, he thinks, smiling fondly while regarding the bite mark on his inner thigh.

He enters the bathroom to take a shower. Will enjoys feeling the warm water soothingly on his bruised body. He dries himself with one of the soft, fluffy towels Hannibal got him – all monogrammed “WGL”, as if they were really married- and walks back to the master bedroom to get dressed. He puts on casual clothes in light colors, linen pants and a shirt, good quality, but plain. No need to dress up today. They will stay at home, enjoying each other's company.

And their dogs', Will thinks, smiling, when he walks into the living room and is greeted by Winston and Applesauce. The dogs rush to Will, wagging their tails, excited and happy to see him. He pets them affectionately, thinking how lucky he is to have them with him. He realized that he can go without many things, but he honestly can't imagine living his life without dogs.

Even though he isn't able to have a large pack of dogs anymore, like he used to. They had to relocate about ten times in the last three years to escape the police, a task which a pack of seven or eight dogs would have made too difficult. It has been hard enough as it is, not just because of the dogs. They almost got caught on several occasions. After visiting Bedelia, they only escaped by the skin of their teeth.

Thinking of Bedelia- who survived their visit short of one leg- reminds Will of another visit they paid to someone else, and he strokes Applesauce's head, wondering if she still remembers and misses Alana. Or Margot and their son. When they took the dog, they had made sure nobody was at home, save two bodyguards who they subdued easily before locking them in the pantry- alive and unharmed.

If it had been up to Hannibal, they would have killed them all, the bodyguards, Alana, Margot, even their son Matthew. Taking the dog instead was Will's idea, of course. 

“It will keep them on their toes,” he had said. “They will know we took her as a warning, and they will know what will happen if they ever come after us again. And even though you don't keep your promise, we take something from her, something I'm sure she values dearly. It's a compromise.”

To be honest, Will would have never thought that Hannibal might agree. A broken promise and another dog to bother with- why on earth would he agree to that? But he did, nonchalantly, with an amused smile, and Will was dumbfounded. This was the moment when he really understood how much he had changed Hannibal.

***

Of course Winston had been a different matter. Will had wanted Molly and Walter to be at home when he would come to take him. He had to say good-bye, he owed them that much. 

“I have to go,” he had told Hannibal before he went. “I have to get Winston, and I have to see them. They were my family, Hannibal. I won't stay with them, and I won't let myself get arrested, I promise.”

Hannibal -who had frowned at the word 'family'- replied: “If you aren't back in two hours, I'll come after you.” 

It didn't sound worried, but like a threat, and Will knew it was. He just nodded. “You won't have to. I'll be back in time.”

***

It was awkward at Molly's – which also used to be his- place. Molly and Walter were staring at Will incredulously and anxiously, as if he were an apparition. They had obviously believed him to be dead. When he told them he had been with Hannibal, it seemed as if they couldn't believe their ears.

“I'm sorry,” Will said. “I love you both, but I have to stay with him. It's where I belong.”

“He tried to get us killed,” Molly whispered, glaring at Will. “He's a monster, Will. How can you stay with him, what's wrong with you?”

Will didn't know what to say. She is right, he thought, he is a monster. And he wondered, not for the first time of course, if there was really something wrong with him. Evidently, everybody who used to know his old self would agree. But the truth was that he had never felt so good about himself as he did now that he was with Hannibal.

Molly and Walter refused to hug him, they even took a step back when he approached them. When Will told them that he wanted to take Winston with him, Walter, who had always been fond of the dog, started to cry.

“I hate you,” he sobbed, “I wish you were dead.”

As much as this pained Will, he couldn't blame Walter. One didn't need to be an empath to understand the boy's anger. Will sighed with relief when he was finally back in his car together with Winston, on his way to Hannibal. Despite everything, Molly gave them a head start before she called Jack.

***

Will doesn't want to think of Molly and Walter anymore. He enters the kitchen, followed by his dogs, and smiles. Hannibal is standing at the kitchen counter, making breakfast. Scrambled eggs with Hannibal's special ingredient. Eating this for breakfast after a kill has become a ritual, and sometimes they talk about the first time they shared this meal.

“Is that when you fell in love with me?” Will asked him once, and Hannibal just smiled and shook his head.

“No,” he said, “At that point, I was already infatuated with you.”

Will walks over to Hannibal, who looks up and smiles at him. Will can see the love and adoration in Hannibal's eyes, and he remembers the countless times Hannibal looked at him that way, long before they became whatever they are now. Will wonders why he couldn't see, why it took him years to understand and why he needed Bedelia's confirmation to finally realize it. Probably because he didn't want to see, because he wasn't ready.

“Good morning, Will.”

“Good morning.” Will pulls Hannibal into an embrace and kisses him roughly. 

Hannibal kisses him back, holding him tight while digging his nails into Will's hips. When they let go of each other, they are both aroused, but there will be time to enjoy each other later. First, it's time to enjoy their kill. Hannibal probably didn't sleep at all, being too busy making sausages and preparing their kill's liver and kidney for dinner. They eat in the living room, and Will is throwing the occasional piece of sausage on the floor for the dogs to eat.

“It's delicious,” he says, winking at Hannibal while eating his breakfast greedily, and Hannibal chuckles softly.

Of course Hannibal remembers. He remembers everything, as does Will.

Their first breakfast together. Will's first kill, involuntary, trying to save a girl's life, manipulated by Hannibal. Hannibal making Will eat this girl's ear, stuffing it down Will's throat.

Hannibal framing him for murder and then freeing him again because he missed him. Will trying to get Hannibal killed, then teaming up with Jack Crawford to convict Hannibal. Will's and Hannibal's long conversations, about Will's becoming, about family, murder and god. Hannibal making Will realize that he enjoys killing by sending a killer after him.

Hannibal feeling betrayed and gutting Will, while hugging him and crying. The pain Will felt in his belly and his heart. The horrible noises Abigail made when Hannibal cut her throat.

Hannibal leaving for Europe, with Bedelia of all people. Will traveling to Europe to look for him, finding Hannibal's childhood home, the murder tableau symbolizing his broken heart and finally Hannibal himself. Hannibal saving Will's life, after they both tried to kill each other, and giving up his freedom for Will.

Hannibal sending a serial killer after Molly and Walter, an innocent woman and her eleven year old child, whose only fault was that they happened to be Will's family. Dolarhyde's kill, the beauty of them killing together and Will's realization that he didn't want to live without Hannibal anymore.

His futile attempt to free both of them in death. Waking up on a boat, Chiyoh dressing his wounds and Hannibal lying next to him. Their recovery, the slow healing of their bodies, minds and souls.

Getting used to the intimacy, to the closeness of Hannibal's body next to his own. Soft, lingering touches that became greedier and more lustful when they started to feel better. Being intimate with Hannibal, feeling their bodies become one for the first time, both the most natural and the most extraordinary experience of his life.

Talking endlessly, arguing, discussing and flirting, Will coming to terms with what he is, to himself, to Hannibal and to the world.

And then the kills.

Will knows Hannibal's monster will always be offended by the rude. There's no changing that, Will knows and he tolerates, but he wants no part of it. The people they kill together are other monsters, worse than them. Like the man they killed last night, who murdered a teenager for wearing a dress and insisting on being a girl. They displayed the man, to make everybody see that he was a pig and a monster.

Will has come to enjoy the act of displaying almost as much as the act of killing itself. But soon their kill will be discovered, and they will have to escape again. Everybody will know it was them. Thanks to Freddie Lounds, everybody knows them, knows their brutal, ruthless way of killing and their murder tableaus, and Will and Hannibal don't even bother covering their tracks.

Will regrets that they have to leave their lovely house at the Caribbean sea, but he has always known this day would come eventually. And it doesn't really matter, because Will's home is not a place anymore. His home is with Hannibal.

“You know that we have to leave soon, Will,” Hannibal says, as if he read Will's mind. “We took a great risk by displaying him. If we go on like this, our good fortune might forsake us one day, and we will get caught.”

Will just shrugs. “Maybe,” he answers, “One day. But even if I'm going to rot in a prison cell for the rest of my life, it was worth it. All of it.”

And he means it, means all of it, all the things that happened before and after he pushed them off the cliff. As bad and as painful some of these things were, he wouldn't be here now with Hannibal if it weren't for them. And there's no place he'd rather be.

Their eyes lock, and Will knows that Hannibal understands and feels the same. He smiles and takes Hannibal's hand.


End file.
